A robot may be used for a variety of unmanned operations. One example of an unmanned robot is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), for example, the iRobot Packbot, available from iRobot of Bedford, Mass. A UGV may typically include a platform, and a manipulator carried by the platform that is often primitive and includes joint level control. The single manipulator often performs all of the operations.
A commercial-off-the-shelf robot may have increased flexibility and may include dual arm, dexterous manipulators. One particular example is the MotoMan DIA 10, available from Motoman, Inc. of West Carrollton, Ohio. Academia and research groups may also provide robots with increased functionality, for example, the NASA Robonaut.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,484 to Lemelson et al. discloses a system for controlling manufacturing operations. A location of a target object relative to a robotic manipulator is input into a control system. The manipulator and target object are located and tracked via the global positioning system. The control system directs the manipulator to perform operations on each target object based upon the location of the manipulator and target object.
Reduced cost and reduced weight may correspond to limited robot functions. Control of a robot may be limited by a number of ways the robot may be manipulated. More particularly, for example, a robot may have limited dexterity and limited movement in a finite number of directions as a result.
Moreover, when more than one robot having limited dexterity and limited movement is used, it may be difficult for an operator to control each robot. More particularly, when each robot's platform is positioned in a different direction, an operator may find it increasingly difficult to control respective manipulators in a common direction or have coordinated movements from a controller correspond to coordinate movements of the respective manipulators.